Casablanca: Africa and Europe celebrate three years of fruitful cooperation on statistics for development

The city of Casablanca hosted the Closing Forum of the Pan-African Statistics Programme II (PAS II), bringing together more than a hundred representatives from African National Statistical Institutes, Regional Economic Communities, the African Union Commission, the European Union and several technical and financial partners.

Funded by the European Union and jointly implemented by STATAFRIC, Eurostat and Expertise France, PAS II (2022–2025) marks an essential step in the construction of an integrated, credible and sustainable African Statistical System.

Opening the proceedings, Mr. Marseli Oussama, Director of Statistics at the Moroccan High Commission for Planning, expressed the Kingdom’s pride in hosting this continental event in Casablanca, a symbol of dynamism and openness. He highlighted the concrete impact of PAS II, including the modernization of national accounts and business registers, the increased dissemination of administrative data, and the promotion of digital innovation and peer-to-peer exchanges.

**Forum of the Pan-African Statistics Programme II (PAS II) in Casablanca, Morocco.**

The workshops conducted by the High Commission for Planning on statistical communication and the use of administrative sources have contributed to disseminating regional good practices and strengthening technical cooperation between African countries. The partners welcomed the progress made under SAP II and reaffirmed their commitment to continued cooperation. Mr. Ben Paul Mungyereza, representing the African Development Bank, highlighted the tangible results of the program and announced the preparation of SCB-VI (2026–2030), which will integrate the lessons learned from SAP II and SCB-V to strengthen the implementation of the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa.
Mr. Léandre Ngogang Wandji, representative of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, presented several concrete achievements, including the reduction of census mapping time in Burundi, new GDP estimates in Eritrea, the creation of SDG dashboards in Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal and Zimbabwe, as well as the integration of geospatial and administrative data into national statistical systems.

In her address, Ms. Claudia Junker, Head of Unit at Eurostat, recalled that SAP II represents a pillar of the strategic partnership between Africa and the European Union. Thanks to funding of €18.7 million, the program has enabled the modernization of national accounts, the reduction of trade asymmetries between the DRC and Zambia, the production of food balance sheets in Malawi, the completion of eleven peer reviews, and the promotion of digital technology through e-learning and hackathons.

She called for the establishment of a future PAS III to consolidate the achievements and strengthen the statistical autonomy of the African continent.
For his part, Mr. Adoum Gagoloum, Head of the Economic Statistics Division at STATAFRIC, emphasized that SAP II has concretized cooperation between the African Union and the European Union through more than 200 technical missions, 40 regional workshops and 1,500 beneficiaries. Key achievements include the publication of the first quarterly accounts in Guinea, the modernization of web platforms in Cameroon, Congo, Guinea and Seychelles, as well as the creation of thematic groups of the African Statistical System.

The technical sessions held during the Forum highlighted the program’s concrete achievements. The first session presented the main lessons learned from SAP II, with advances in national accounts, business registers, trade statistics, and communication. The second session illustrated the transformation of the African statistical landscape through several case studies, including Guinea’s first quarterly accounts, Malawi’s food balance sheets, and the development of a harmonized methodology for informal cross-border trade. The third session focused on sustaining acquired capacities, emphasizing the importance of digital training, which has enabled the delivery of more than 400 courses in 51 countries, and the need for sustainable funding to consolidate gains.

Participants unanimously welcomed the program’s results and reaffirmed their commitment to continuing this common momentum around a shared vision: reliable statistics for sustainable, inclusive, and evidence-based development. The Casablanca Forum, organized with the support of the Moroccan High Commission for Planning, thus marked a high point in Africa-Europe cooperation and paved the way for a sovereign, connected, and forward-looking statistical Africa.